<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<meta charset="UTF-8">
<title>Steady. Earnest. Patient. by abrilas, HeyJude19</title>
<style type="text/css">

body { background-color: #ffffff; }
.CI {
text-align:center;
margin-top:0px;
margin-bottom:0px;
padding:0px;
}
.center   {text-align: center;}
.cover    {text-align: center;}
.full     {width: 100%; }
.quarter  {width: 25%; }
.smcap    {font-variant: small-caps;}
.u        {text-decoration: underline;}
.bold     {font-weight: bold;}
</style>
</head>
<body>
<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/27071953">Steady. Earnest. Patient.</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/abrilas/pseuds/abrilas'>abrilas</a>, <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/HeyJude19/pseuds/HeyJude19'>HeyJude19</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>The Three Words Collection [2]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Cross-Posted on Tumblr, F/M, Harry Potter Epilogue What Epilogue | EWE, Hogwarts Eighth Year, Inspired by Art, Romance</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-10-18</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-10-18</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-09 00:48:04</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>708</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/27071953</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/abrilas/pseuds/abrilas, https://archiveofourown.org/users/HeyJude19/pseuds/HeyJude19</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Another one-shot based on the fabulous art of @abrilas-art on tumblr and instagram. Draco and Hermione share a compartment on the Hogwarts Express for the return trip to King's Cross at the end of their Eighth Year. Draco spends the ride thinking through what he'll say to Hermione before she leaves for Australia.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Hermione Granger/Draco Malfoy</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>The Three Words Collection [2]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/2189406</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>22</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>305</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Steady. Earnest. Patient.</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Thank you friend, for your amazing art, collaborating with you is an absolute dream. Go look at the rest of what <a href="https://abrilas.art/">@abrilas-art</a> creates, because it's all fantastic.</p>
<p>Listen to the podfic from <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kjSIov-IsuY">ETL-Echo Audiobooks</a>.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  
</p>
<p>Steady. Earnest. Patient.</p>
<p>The train wound through green mountains that would soon flatten to hills and then fields. London awaited and with it summer. And separation.</p>
<p>Steady. Earnest. Patient.</p>
<p>Draco Malfoy repeated the three words that would get him through the next few hours with her and then the next few days apart from her. Then a longer stretch of loneliness.</p>
<p>He had a very important statement to impart before she left for Australia for an undetermined amount of time. Draco would declare his love for Hermione Granger out loud for the first time before she left, he’d decided.</p>
<p>Steady.</p>
<p>She’d already made him agree to meet her at some Muggle museum in a few days’ time. He’d wear a suit and she’d giggle on sight at the unnecessary formality of his attire. But dressing anything less than his best for this moment would be a disservice to both her and their relationship. Of what it had meant to him this past year.</p>
<p>She’d lead him through the varied displays, throwing out facts and nuggets of trivia as easily as one exhaled. He’d let her drag him along, an eager and willing follower in her brilliant wake.</p>
<p>Eventually their afternoon would come to an end and Draco would calm his nerves and racing pulse.</p>
<p>“Granger, there’s something I need to tell you.”</p>
<p>No, not Granger. Granger was for when he wanted to annoy her or conversely, when she irritated him. Which was often.</p>
<p>“Love, there’s something I need to tell you.”</p>
<p>Yes, love. Both his pet name for her and the crux of the message he needed to deliver for the first time. Ever.</p>
<p>He’d stand straight-backed and tall, though standing tall over his petite girlfriend was more a natural consequence of his stature than something he’d have to consciously do.</p>
<p>She would turn to him, give him her full attention. Because she always did this, his beautiful witch. Just one of the very many reasons he’d fallen for her. She didn’t only look at him when he spoke. She listened to him with her whole face, her whole being.</p>
<p>Earnest.</p>
<p>Draco loathed direct eye contact with anyone but her. But her gaze he craved, and he’d be sure to hold it now. She needed to know he’d spent time forming these words, working to this moment, thinking, planning, considering. Not a fleeting thought. Not a passing phase. Not blind lust. Nothing less than the deepest part of his soul loved each and every part of Hermione.</p>
<p>“This past year has meant so much to me.”</p>
<p>No, that sounded like a goodbye.</p>
<p>“You’ve given me some of the happiest moments of my life.”</p>
<p>Still too close to a farewell.</p>
<p>“You mean everything to me.”</p>
<p>Good, yes. An all-encompassing statement and not in the least bit hyperbolic. A truth she could not and would not dispute.</p>
<p>Patient.</p>
<p>She’d been so patient with him. Now he’d do the same with her. He always saw the sparkle of hope in her eye at the end of every kiss, during the hazy glow of every post-coital state. The three words on the tip of his tongue that he’d kept locked inside his heart. Until now.</p>
<p>He could give her the time and space she would need to salvage her relationship with her parents.</p>
<p>“But I know what you have to go do and it may take some time. You’ll be across the world and I’ll be here. And though I know you’d never ask me to, I want you to know I’ll be waiting for you, no matter how long it takes. Because I love you.”</p>
<p>The train rounded a curve on the track as her legs jostled in their position of half over his lap. Trainer-covered feet tangled with his dragon-hide shoes. Small hands that hadn’t strayed from his for the whole ride squeezed his fingers.</p>
<p>She turned to him without warning and pressed a kiss to his lips. Distracting him, her greatest skill. Then she went right back to looking out the window. Like it was so easy, so natural to express affection for him.</p>
<p>Steady. Earnest. Patient.</p>
<p>Draco turned her face back towards him with two gentle fingers beneath her chin.</p>
<p>“Love, there’s something I need to tell you.”</p>
<p> </p>
  </div></div>
</body>
</html>